Shintouyu
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~+> We've Struck Gold! <+~
And I checked, it's not Fool's Gold either
And I checked, it's not Fool's Gold either
First and foremost, I shall state that Gaia Online's main selling point is the avatar system; being as pervasive as it is.
To say that it's not would be refuting why most Gaians were possibly interested and attracted to Gaia Online in the first place.
The Gold Shops are a wonderful thing to have: it provides our e-economy with a decent goldsink, useful items to further dress-up our avatars, small time interaction with the NPCs storekeepers, and can be even considered, undeniably, essential.
Also Gaia Gold is a universal currency here, which therefore makes the Gold Shops universal, and thus good Gold Shops makes everybody happy.
They have so much untapped potential to expand, that it's a shame that they aren't being used to the fullest.
~+> Suggestions <+~
And I assure you, they're not demands
And I assure you, they're not demands
These We Don't Have Yet
The Rainbow And Monochrome
While the Gold Shops items do come in an assortment of color, they usually come in a small range -- usually 4-5 -- and leave out a majority of the other "core" colors -- about 7. They may also occasionally come in maybe 6-7 of the core colors, but never all 11.
Now, because there is only a small number of available colors, there is also a severe lack of interest. Many Gaians have often expressed disappointment and dissuasion on buying a item because it did not come in a particular color.
Gold Shop items/updates need to come out in all the core colors per update, even if users must put up with a few extra days wait.
More colors will increase the variety of choices to buy from, the users' interest and desire to spend, and create satisfaction.
For Gaians concerned with a single item being recolored too many times and therefore filling up many slots on a page, should see this thread; Which I personally think is a nice idea.
The "core colors" being Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple, Pink, Brown, Black, White, and Gray. This is excluding the immensely different amount of shades, tones, and hues which creates even more variety.
Several colors are also even more incredibly lacking in items; such as Orange, Pink, Purple, and Green.
I myself have tried unprofessionally recoloring on MsPaint, and noted that recoloring does not take that much effort that it cannot be done with a few extra days. Especially since Gaia's artists should have techniques or programs that could easily assist far better than MSPaint.
The Diversity
Dressing up the avatar as what we want is how everybody likes it. However, the Gold Shop, cannot fulfill those desires when it does not stock itself with greater diversity. While they're supposed to contain "essential" items that help us attain our dream avatar in, somewhat, more affordable prices, they're unfortunately too lacking to do so.
We can classify most Gold Shops items easily under things like: shirt, coat, vest, hat, dresses, shoes, belt, etc.
However, that is not to say that they aren't missing/not updating other types of items, such as mantles, capes/cloaks, wings, tails, robes, armor, weapons, etc; Which have existed in the Gold Shops before.
Expanding/updating the diversity of items will allow Gaians to let their imagination run more wild, more ways to dress-up, and give them more things to buy.
Further division would go into subgroups like "wizard's hat, wedding dress, army boots, etc."
There's a severe lack of shoes and pants in the updates as of late. Even more so, wigs. And on a minor note: contacts.
I would also personally like to suggest that Salon Durem be retooled to sell wigs (not costumes wigs for sake of consistency) and contacts.
The Gold Shop Chance Items
It's been proven that Chance Items are extremely successful, so why not share that success with the Gold Shops too?
Even though I say a Chance Item, it's going to be a very simplified version.
Hypothetically, price it at 3k and only have 7 items for it (4 commons, 2 uncommons, and 1 rare), and switch the inventory every month or two (or every two to three).
And from what I can hear and see, it's not like you haven't done a successful Gaia-Gold CI before.
The Complementary/Spin-Off Items
As Mellow Mush suggested, creating simple items that goes with (other) Cash Shop related items would be very nice.
"This way, for the people that really just can't save up 10 million gold, they can still get an item with the same feel as that one little thing off their wishlist. This would also be a plus for those people that don't want to risk money on Chance Items - they can still safely buy a few things in the Cash Shop and feel like they're in on the RIG action. I've seen alot of people wishing they could just buy the RIG items in the Cash Shop, and this would probably make them happy, and (not to mention) would be an extra source of revenue."
Noting that she does mean complimentary items for the Cash Shop, but that doesn't mean you can't make it for the Gold Shops either. Also should be heeded that you could just make one similar item and that would be fine.
The Shopping Cart
As Miss-dark8607 suggested, a shopping cart would be a particularly helpful feature.
"I like the suggestion about having a "cart" in the gold shop. You know kind of like every other store on the internet. Where you can fill up your cart with hmm for Gaia I'll say 10 items and then just buy in bulk. That would be so cool since a lot times we are trying to buy outfits."
These Happen Randomly
The Style
Bringing back the aforementioned classifications of items (and subgroups), because we have so many when choosing items, the desired effects we're going for can radically differ in practice.
For example, a wizard's hat.
[
], [
], [
]You can easily see that the Blue Magic Hat is simplistic and childish, the Royal Wizard (Sorceror's Hat) is much more magical and mature, and the Merlin's Hat is abit more muskteer-ish.
There isn't much to say here, except that going back to older ideas and redesigning them to achieve different effects is a very good idea.
The Price
The Gold Shop items are factually permanent, barring some peculiar exceptions, notably with Dernier*Cri, that the idea of saving up gold for them is really not an impossible feat.
So, don't be afraid to vary the range in the Gold Shops from the easily obtained 1,000g to the high-class 60,000g -- or even higher or lower.
However, don't forget that Gaia is full of casual players, so having items at 100,000g+ is absurd any where other than Dernier*Cri.
Rather, if you're going to start making those kind of quality items, creating a new Middle-Class Gold Shop would be highly desired.
The Neglected Shops And Features
Just bringing up that you, Gaia Online, do have more than 6 shops, and cycling through them wouldn't be a bad idea at all.
Not to mention that their exchange features do need a major overhaul.
The Knock-Offs
Full suggestion by marshmallowcreampie.
Knock-offs (in the Gold Shop) are effective for several reasons:
[1] They are a cheaper alternative. Questers can buy their wanted item at a very reasonable price. Which leaves them more gold to spend on other items (probably other knock-offs) or start/continue a new quest instead of having a very stagnant one.
[2] Standalone. Questers are getting specifically the item they want without the unnecessary hassle of everything else.
[3] Color diversity. Oh, do we all love our color diversity.
These Were Fulfilled
The Dressing Room Uncertainty
The Dressing Room in the Shops and Marketplace should be updated for various reasons.
Remember, Gaia, there are Gaians who do face their avatar backwards, kneel, or both; Also visit FLASH areas like Towns or Rally.
And would very much appreciate being able to preview items/poses at multiple positions.
Updated with a better preview feature.
Noticeably lacking kneeling as an option, but oh well.
